Overview
The publishing district of Tin Pan Alley was the leading producer of popular music in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. A sheet music publishing district in New York, Tin Pan Alley produced sheet music at higher rates and employed more aggressive sales techniques than publishers in the nineteenth century had used. Tin Pan Alley songs had several specific features and styles, all of which will be addressed in this lesson. A popular genre of instrumental music called ragtime also influenced the composition of Tin Pan Alley songs.
Objectives
- Examine the aspects that made Tin Pan Alley songs successful, such as specific forms, sentimental lyrics, and inexpensive sheet music
- Examine how Tin Pan Alley rose in popularity at the turn of the twentieth century
- Identify Tin Pan Alley composers
- Define vaudeville
- Define ragtime
- Identify the features of ragtime music
Conclusion
Tin Pan Alley simultaneously stands for a publishing district, a way of selling sheet music, and a specific song-writing style. Many aspects of popular sheet music that we saw in the last lesson were held over into the twentieth century, such as sentimental ballads, verse-chorus forms, and songs that satirized perceived African American characteristics. "After the Ball ♫" is the first major success story of Tin Pan Alley, and it set the precedent for songwriting, promotion, and sales that all other composers and publishing companies tried to emulate. Tin Pan Alley songs also favored the waltz rhythm, and with the popularity of the instrumental music genre of ragtime, Tin Pan Alley composers were quick to write songs about ragtime and that occasionally incorporated musical gestures from ragtime, such as syncopation.
"Before the turn of the century, only three American composers made an appreciable dent in the German consciousness: John Philip Sousa, James A. Bland, and Stephen Foster"
